Jeremy Alvarado, 19, doesn't want to know how many calories are in his 20-piece order of Chicken McNuggets.

Alvarado, a sophomore studying pre-pharmacy at the University of the Incarnate Word, walks across the street to have lunch with friends at McDonald's on Broadway about once a week.

Sure, he's noticed the new menu boards listing calorie counts. And he's heard about McDonald's getting a leg up on the federal health care law that will require restaurant chains with 20 or more locations to post the calories on menus. “I think it's a good thing. It will make people more aware so they can make healthier choices,” Alvarado says.

“But I didn't see the calories today, because I didn't want to look,” he says. “I was really hungry.” (In his defense, the small-type size used for calories makes it easy to ignore).

Would he be surprised to find out 20 McNuggets clock in at 930 calories? “Not really,” Alvarado says. “We come here because it's easy and cheap.” McDonald's, I learn, gives students a 10 percent discount.

“We know McDonald's is not the best for us,” says fellow sophomore Jacob Talavera, while admitting the 1,100- to 1,300-calorie tally for today's lunch did cross his mind when ordering. “I just worked out, and now I've had half a day's worth (of calories).”

And yet, the sticker shock of a Double Cheeseburger meal isn't compelling enough to sway him toward a lower-calorie option.

All of the dozen or so patrons I interviewed at various San Antonio-area McDonald's recently echoed similar sentiments: “Yes,” they like the calorie counts on menus. But “no,” it hasn't changed their usual orders. “Though (knowing how many calories I ate) might make me work out more later,” says one mom.

A Stanford study on the effects of calories on menu boards at New York City Starbucks revealed customers consumed an average of 6 percent fewer food calories per transaction versus customers in Boston and Philadelphia who didn't have the nutrition information posted.

Whether we choose to count calories at fast-food restaurants or not (and my feeling is that, over time, we will), the information is necessary to make educated choices. About 25 percent of our daily calories are eaten outside the home and, given today's colossal portions, we simply can't rely on guesstimating calorie counts.

“I had no idea the red velvet cake cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory had about 1,300 calories,” a friend recently posted on my Facebook page. “I knew it was bad but not THAT bad. I never ordered it again.” It's actually 1,540 calories.

A couple of McDonald's customers did mention being pleasantly surprised by items with fewer calories than expected. Compared with the 570-calorie sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, a sausage burrito is a steal at “only 300” calories. Heck, you might order two.

This brings up an important point. Calories only tell so much, and you should ask a cashier for a nutritional facts sheet or check out the complete nutrition information online before placing your next order.

That innocuous fruit and maple oatmeal with only 290 calories you've come to love? Would you guess it's sweetened with roughly 8 teaspoons of sugar? Order it without the brown sugar and it still clocks in at more than 41/2 teaspoons. And that's before a medium nonfat vanilla cappuccino adds another 10 teaspoons of sugar to your morning mix.

According to new recommendations from the American Heart Association, women should consume no more than five teaspoons of added sugars a day, men no more than nine. Oops.

Oh, and that tiny 300-calorie sausage burrito?

It has 870 milligrams of sodium, more than one-third of the recommended daily upper limit.

Still lovin' it?

Claudia Zapata is a registered dietitian. Her column appears every other Sunday in Taste. Email Claudia at czhealth@gmail.com, follow her at Twitter at @ClaudiaZapata and on Facebook at Claudia Zapata, MS, RD.